One more good news for you, YAML-users. I've implemented emitter functionality in php-binding of syck library. It is quite straight-forward, no fancy stuff for now, but it should work.

Supported datatypes include associative arrays, strings, integers, floats, booleans and nulls. He includes an example of the code in action (dumping out the information for an associative array). You can get this latest update from the subversion source on his site.

One more good news for you, YAML-users. I've implemented emitter functionality in php-binding of syck library. It is quite straight-forward, no fancy stuff for now, but it should work.

Supported datatypes include associative arrays, strings, integers, floats, booleans and nulls. He includes an example of the code in action (dumping out the information for an associative array). You can get this latest update from the subversion source on his site.

WebReference.com has posted part two in a series looking at the "building blocks" that make up PHP and its use. This time, it's a look at the containers for your data - the data types, literals, variables, and constants.

They go through each, explaining what they are, how they're used and when you'd want to use them in your code. They explain the data types and how those fit with each "container" and some basic things like valid names and how to assign things correctly.

They even get get into working with variables from GET and POST requests as well as working with the scope of variables and getting the metadata about them (is it an integer? is it empty?)

WebReference.com has posted part two in a series looking at the "building blocks" that make up PHP and its use. This time, it's a look at the containers for your data - the data types, literals, variables, and constants.

They go through each, explaining what they are, how they're used and when you'd want to use them in your code. They explain the data types and how those fit with each "container" and some basic things like valid names and how to assign things correctly.

They even get get into working with variables from GET and POST requests as well as working with the scope of variables and getting the metadata about them (is it an integer? is it empty?)

Lukas Smith has posted about the release of MDB2 2.1.0, the latest version of his blend of the PEAR MDB2 package and the PEAR DB package.

I decided to go with a bump of the minor version for the next release of MDB2 because there are a number significant changes and additions. One of the big changes is dropping array_key_exists() whereever possible.

Aside from that the two main features are custom datatypes and query rewriting via the debugging infrastructure. The custom datatypes were already explained in a previous blog post, so I will not go into detail on them again here. However the debugging infrastructure is probably one of the things people were not aware of before. Now its obviously even more powerful.

He includes code to demonstrate the powerful debugger that's been implemented. He also mentions two other people that have come on board to help with some of the development on the project - Justin working on the Oracle driver and Nathan on the SQL Server/PostgreSQL driver.

Lukas Smith has posted about the release of MDB2 2.1.0, the latest version of his blend of the PEAR MDB2 package and the PEAR DB package.

I decided to go with a bump of the minor version for the next release of MDB2 because there are a number significant changes and additions. One of the big changes is dropping array_key_exists() whereever possible.

Aside from that the two main features are custom datatypes and query rewriting via the debugging infrastructure. The custom datatypes were already explained in a previous blog post, so I will not go into detail on them again here. However the debugging infrastructure is probably one of the things people were not aware of before. Now its obviously even more powerful.

He includes code to demonstrate the powerful debugger that's been implemented. He also mentions two other people that have come on board to help with some of the development on the project - Justin working on the Oracle driver and Nathan on the SQL Server/PostgreSQL driver.

In his latest post, Lukas Smith talks about serializing data - some of the pros and cons about it, as well as his experiences with it in the development of his own framework.

In my own framework I have decided that there is plenty of structured data that I will never query on that I will just stick into the database as a serialized array. Now the other day I modified the auto type handling in MDB2's quote() method to automatically serialize array's if no type is explicitly passed to the quote() method.

I send out a question to pear-dev@ and it was not unanimously well received. So I sat down and pondered a more elegant approach. Actually there is already one approach implemented in MDB2 since ages.

This implementation uses a seperate module that abuses PHP5's overloading functionality to integrate it easily. He also looked into another solution, however - creating a "datatype map" to help with the custom automatic serialization of datatypes (not just dependant on the variable type like before). Be sure to check out the comments for more thoughts on the subject, including validation of the custom datatypes.

In his latest post, Lukas Smith talks about serializing data - some of the pros and cons about it, as well as his experiences with it in the development of his own framework.

In my own framework I have decided that there is plenty of structured data that I will never query on that I will just stick into the database as a serialized array. Now the other day I modified the auto type handling in MDB2's quote() method to automatically serialize array's if no type is explicitly passed to the quote() method.

I send out a question to pear-dev@ and it was not unanimously well received. So I sat down and pondered a more elegant approach. Actually there is already one approach implemented in MDB2 since ages.

This implementation uses a seperate module that abuses PHP5's overloading functionality to integrate it easily. He also looked into another solution, however - creating a "datatype map" to help with the custom automatic serialization of datatypes (not just dependant on the variable type like before). Be sure to check out the comments for more thoughts on the subject, including validation of the custom datatypes.

CodeSnipers.com has this new post today with a comparison of one of the fundamentals of two languages - datatypes in PHP vs. Perl.

I've made a few friends recently who are ultra Perl geeks (Yes, you know who you are. Andy, Liz and Brian!) and they are rubbing off on me. I learned Perl a little bit, about 6 years ago when I first started web programming but I didn't know any Perl programmers so I had nobody to pester with questions. I always said that Perl was cryptic so Perl Elitists could show off their l33t ski11s. But I've found it's not all that badâ€¦

I know PHP so well, that it helps my understanding to compare Perl to php (Don't flame me Perl folks! I'm not promoting one over the other, just comparing and contrasting).

CodeSnipers.com has this new post today with a comparison of one of the fundamentals of two languages - datatypes in PHP vs. Perl.

I've made a few friends recently who are ultra Perl geeks (Yes, you know who you are. Andy, Liz and Brian!) and they are rubbing off on me. I learned Perl a little bit, about 6 years ago when I first started web programming but I didn't know any Perl programmers so I had nobody to pester with questions. I always said that Perl was cryptic so Perl Elitists could show off their l33t ski11s. But I've found it's not all that badâ€¦

I know PHP so well, that it helps my understanding to compare Perl to php (Don't flame me Perl folks! I'm not promoting one over the other, just comparing and contrasting).